I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

We Don’t Want You Here

I haven’t posted much in the past couple days because of a
really big RL opportunity I’m handling.I’m not ready to say what it is yet, but if things go the way they’re
heading, I’ll be losing my EU TZ play time, and that’s a very good thing.

But in the interim, let me talk a little about Eve’s
long-term future.There’s a great
article that just posted to TMC by Tubrug1 talking about this very problem.He tends to focus on mechanic changes, but
I’m going to go off on a slightly different tangent.His is worth a definite read, though.It’s truly insightful.

In order to survive long-term, Eve must maintain a certain
number of players to keep its bills paid.I don’t much care whether these players pay with PLEX or subscription
fees, though others do, because both mean revenue for CCP.And ultimately, revenue is all that matters to
CCP.Every decision is tempered by
whether it will generate additional revenue or not.

Eve players should very much desire CCP to make extra
revenue, because it allows additional developers to be hired to improve the
game.Perhaps that means new content,
but it could also mean more developers to improve existing buggy content (POS
management, I’m looking at you).New
content is flashier, and is more likely to bring new players to the game.

I don’t buy the theory that CCP has already reached and
marketed to the entire potential player base.There are a lot of areas of Eve that CCP can market.I was drawn to the game by the market.I had played a game called Federation years
ago, and loved the robust, dynamic market trading system it had established.Some players really enjoy industry.PvP may be the end-result of all efforts in
Eve, but that doesn’t mean all players have to participate in that
end-result.Some gain a lot of enjoyment
from other areas, too.

I’ve yet to see any marketing thrusts focused on the
industry aspect of Eve, even though a sizeable chunk of characters are involved
with industry in some fashion.Where are
the “pay for your account with PLEX” marketing campaigns?The point is, Eve offers a lot of
differentiated experiences, and CCP hasn’t marketed some of these aspects
nearly as much as the PvP and pirate paths.

And future features we aren’t even privy to may open Eve up
to entirely new players with additional “gateways” to Eve.Who knows what additional features Eve could
introduce.Something will be the next
faction warfare or wormhole space, which drew in players with a distinctly
different play experience.

But while these features all influence the player faucet,
improvement of existing features is what affects the corresponding player
sink.Eve has a number of systems that
drive players away, and these issues are perhaps more important than bringing
new customers in.New customers will be
reliant on new features, which are time-intensive and offer uncertain
payoff.Perhaps the next new feature
will be another WiS, which utterly fails and simply wastes development time.

But improving features will help retain players who have
already bought into the Eve value proposition; they’ve already tried the
game.These players are the “low-hanging
fruit” so often referenced in marketing business cases.Your easiest revenue comes from maximizing
existing customer spend.Let’s get those
customers to play for 6 months instead of 3 months.It’s much more likely that, once they get to
six months, they’ll subscribe long-term.

Once players leave, it’s much harder to get them to come
back, so the focus needs to be on hooking players with the promise of long-term
entertainment.The long skill training
times in Eve mean players must see value to training and nurturing a character
for two years to do what they want.In
the mean time, they need to be entertained.

Eve is an activity we do for satisfaction, after all.So let’s hook them with a variety of
activities.

Let’s face it, Eve PvE is mundane and repetitive.I can only rescue the damsel so many times
before I decide, “Screw it, she deserves what’s coming to her.”For example, we should have at least some PvE
that is so random you can’t write a wiki about it.

An improvement to PvE could also bridge the gap between PvE
and PvP.Why not make it so rats try to
warp off when they take too much damage?Force PvE players to fit a warp disruptor.Bridge the gap between the competencies
needed for PvE and PvP.If you’re
fighting the Guristas or Angel Cartel – who shoot missiles and projectile
weapons respectively – why wouldn’t they change damage types?Force players to omni-tank.Fits would fall into line more like PvP
setups, and you might even find that PvErs aren’t the easy marks gankers
thought they were.Now, the skills these
players practice in private can become the basis for PvP interest.That same player now has an avenue to another
play style.Engagement increases, as do
the chances of a long-term subscription.

There have been players and corporations who have been
turned off to WH space because of POS mechanics.FW “button-orbiting” has turned off many
PvPers.For that matter, sov mechanics
have created stagnation and huge empires, and this has turned even more people
off.In each case, improvements here can
pay huge dividends.Again, the easiest customer
to convince to pay for your game is one who’s already logged in.

Another improvement that can see significant value is with
DUST-Eve interconnectivity.Perhaps
corps can hire mercs to, say, destroy PI depots in WH space, disrupting fuel
supplies for POSes.Or perhaps mercs can
infiltrate iHubs and destroy upgrades – or perhaps the iHubs themselves.Maybe they could even stealth-deploy mobile
cyno inhibitors, TCUs, or SBUs.Suddenly, DUST becomes vital to Eve warfare, drawing first-person
shooter players into the Eve universe in a meaningful way – through mechanics
which demand that Eve players pay attention to them.

If you make your mechanics memorable and enjoyable, players
won’t leave, because the very act of playing improves their opinion of your
product.Can we honestly say this is
true now?As Ripard Teg is fond of reminding us,
there’s an opinion that talking about Eve is more entertaining than playing
Eve.Ouch, indeed.

Win your low-hanging fruit by improving their experience
within the game.But there’s another
factor that goes to retention, and that’s player culture.

I’m not talking about what people do with mechanics. War decs and ganking may be frustrating, but no one should feel entirely safe, and both mechanics create content and interaction, which is a great thing. After all, the victim can become - or pay someone else to be - the predator. I'm talking about interactions between players, not pilots.

Let me give you an example.I recently posted a comment in the Eve Online forums wondering why 0.4
moons were seeded with valuable minerals which cannot be mined (moon harvesters
can only be anchored in 0.3 and below).This struck me as an unnecessarily confusing mechanic for people who are
just breaking into moon mining.Knowing
this fact either comes from online searching or experience.

No game should depend on external online resources for basic
information about how modules work.The
module itself says it’s “restricted to security level less than 0.4”. Given that low-sec space starts at 0.4 space,
it’s easy to read this description as meaning it’s usable in all low-sec space,
instead of just below 0.4.It is, to my
knowledge, the only mechanic with a limit OTHER than the high-sec, low-sec,
null-sec cut-offs.That’s inconsistent
and confusing to a new player.

So a player is left with experience as it’s only
teacher.They buy a POS, put it up, buy
all the modules, haul or have it shipped, online POS, and try to anchor the
moon harvester.That’s a lot of time and
isk (though perhaps 90% of it can be recovered by selling it).And it’s a very bad experience.Bad enough to cause many to eschew POS mining
entirely.Bad experiences are
educational when they stem from emergent gameplay.But when they stem from poorly explained
mechanics that can confuse reasonable people… that’s not a good thing.It’s frustrating, and frustration leads to
unsubs.

Now, in my particular case, the person who responded raised
a very good point that quiets my complaint: “Perhaps CCP seeded those 0.4 moons
as a safety valve; they can always adjust moon mineral dynamics by toggling the
harvester to allow 0.4 mining.”That’s a
good response, and it quiets my complaint.

But he gave that response amid ad hominem attacks,
assumptions of my intelligence, and an “…and the horse you rode in on!”
attitude.None of that was necessary,
and he actually turned my overall impression from, “that’s a great point, you’re
absolutely right” to, “Wow, Eve players are dicks”.

When I have that thought, as a three-year veteran highly
vested in the game, it’s just an annoyance.But when a new player has that thought, they unsubscribe and find
another game.

So, yes, while I think the declining PCU numbers are
partially caused by players who are frustrated by broken mechanics leaving the
game, I think culture has a role to play in those unsubs too.I doubt it’s uncommon for a high-sec player
to think, “PvE missions are boring now that I’ve done them all, null-sec players
are all dicks, and I get abuse any time I share an opinion or raise a
suggestion.Screw this, I’m gonna play
____ instead.”

And that’s a big problem CCP should find a way to quietly
resolve.I’d argue that they need to
address huge problems with their current mechanics as a way to recover older
players.I also think that any new
features should be huge new features that provide new play experiences.Odyssey and Rubicon did neither of
those.They added small things and made
small changes, but that doesn’t cut it.I’ve
yet to even see a ghost site spawn, let alone use one.

But CCP also needs to address the poisonous culture of Eve
which sends the message to new players that they’re not wanted here.“Just move along, nothing to see.”That adds insult to injury, and a player
isn’t likely to forget or forgive that impression.That path leads to the end of Eve through the
slow whimper of declining a player base.

10 comments:

All valid points. CCP has built up a rep when it comes to finding out there is a problem, then turning a blind eye/pretending it doesn't exist. When you compare it to other MMOs, ones whom are not sandboxes, their lack of ability to address these issues is sad. It can be argued that CCP does pump out 2 expansions a year and they have their hands full. Except these expansions (esp the last two) would barely be considered content updates in other MMOs. Its not like there are heaps of new dungeons to design, VOs to cast, plot to write, ect. No, its a sandbox, they compted out of all of that. So, where is all the extra time and subs going? Ship re balancing, Deployables, and UI improvements? I don't think so.

I really like your idea of changing PvE rats so they warp out and deal mixed damage. You can have warpouts as an escalation-style mechanic where you need to warp a few systems to chase them down and finish them off, so that not pointing them is a time punishment rather than hard fail.

Long-time eve players are blissfully ignorant of the impression the "tear collecting" cultural-meme gives to new players. The stupidest part is that it's 99.9% fantasy.

With very few exceptions, Eve players are not actually sociopaths... but for some dumb reason everyone likes to pretend they are. Suicide gankers gank freighters for profit, not because they enjoy making people miserable. Ice Interdictions are massive market manipulation operations for pure profit. Attempts to demoralize the other side in a nullsec conflict are done for strategic and tactical reasons... the tears are incidental (the "tears" go away if you 'win' and drive your opponants away from defending their timers). There are a few oddballs like James315, who is enjoying his little bout of messianic roleplaying... in another game he'd style himself the "Supreme Lich Empress" and whine on forums incessantly. The vast majority of PvPers are hunting for thrills or killboard stats (fairly analogous to any random FPS player). Instead of just admitting straightforwardly, "We're attacking you because Fountain has moons we want", Eve players prefer to represent themselves as sociopaths en-masse.

I think it partly comes from the lack of information the game gives you on how good a fight is going to be. When you kill someone who, in retrospect, didn't have a chance, you have a choice between feeling guilty or finding some psychological escape. The "Eve is a cold, hard world... and I enjoy your crying" is an easy one to choose... even if it doesn't make any real sense. Some people do enjoy being a predator, but even there it's the thrill of the hunt that is enjoyed... not the silly reactions afterwards.

Consider a friend of mine, father of three with a decent paying job.. He's also damn near godlike at two popular first person shooters, and would love to play Eve. It took him all of 3 seconds to connect "collecting tears" with the 2nd grade bully his daughter is dealing with at school. _WHY_ should he put up with this kind of culture... when the alternative is a far more straightforward FPS community?

Why is the supposedly mature Eve community completely unable to simply say "I shot you because you were in lowsec... and that's what lowsec is for"? The alternative that most eve players have chosen doesn't make Eve "hardcore", it simply makes it childish... and how are you going to appeal to new players when your primary attitude towards them is that of a elementary-school bully?

I don't find tubrug's article to be very insightful if it relies on throwing around partisan jibes like: "All so CCP can inflate their subscription numbers with scores of highsec miners who contribute very little to the community."

I think a large part of the problem of broken and confusing mechanics is CCP's code base. I read a dev post somewhere saying it would take 10 programmers six months to refactor the code so you didn't have to log off to switch characters. The POS system is in a similar situation. The PVE sucks so bad because CCP's mission creation tools are horrid and old. The majority of the game is written in stackless Python, which is incapable of taking advantage of multiple cores (looking at you TiDi).

Fixing all of this seems like it would require a near total rewrite. They have been addressing some things over the years, but to get this done properly would require more than CCP seems to be willing to invest in back-end refinement - it isn't sexy enough to spend money on.

TL;DR: Get used to these issues; many are far too ingrained in the system to work out now.

Nonetheless, no company ever gained any goodwill from its customers by saying, "It'd be too hard to change." If CCP wants to compete with the space MMOs of the future - even the space games of today - it has no choice but to upgrade its systems and program architecture to position itself effectively for both current features and potential areas of expansion. Otherwise, Eve is like a car after the apocalypse... slowly running out of gas with no hope of refueling.

I would like to add that it is my belief that a lot of the resources and capital needed to implement a lot of changes of that nature, are instead diverted to side projects.

Dust being the primary culprit here. Eve is in maintenance mode, they are using us to pay for their "next big thing" attempts. Instead of improving the game itself, they do such things as spend a pile of dev time and resources to make an FPS for a console that expired a year later.

So, far from being a priority for the company, Eve is on the back burner, and it shows.

Subscribe via RSS

Copyright Notice

EVE Online and the EVE logo are the registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights are reserved worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EVE Online, the EVE logo, EVE and all associated logos and designs are the intellectual property of CCP hf. All artwork, screenshots, characters, vehicles, storylines, world facts or other recognizable features of the intellectual property relating to these trademarks are likewise the intellectual property of CCP hf. CCP hf. has granted permission to Target Caller to use EVE Online and all associated logos and designs for promotional and information purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not in any way affiliated with, Target Caller. CCP is in no way responsible for the content on or functioning of this website, nor can it be liable for any damage arising from the use of this website.